I am 5 feet 9 inches (172 cms) and weigh 160 pounds (73 kg). I am pretty good at pumping. My largest sail is an 8.5 meter. I am interested in hearing from readers of the forum about which board would get me planing earliest with my 8.5, the Formula Experience (which is heavy but wide) or the Ultrasonic (which is light but not as wide). Would there be a significant difference or very slight?

I don't really care much about jibing performance in boards that size. I just want to plane. The Formula Experience is a lot cheaper and so it has some appeal. However, I would be willing to pay more for the Ultrasonic if it performs better in light wind.

Remi

28th April 2011 08:56 AM

Hi Unregisterd

Is depend what you want, if it's for reaching and jibbing the Ultrasonic will be much better. If it's for Up Wind Down wind Formula Experience will be better, but both board will plane at almost the same time.
One is built for Formula Racing format and the other one for Light Slalom.
So just choose in function of what you want to get.

Hope this help

All the best

Unregistered

28th April 2011 10:34 AM

Formula experience or Ultrasonic?

Remi,

Thank you for the answer. It helps.

One other question. For my weight and sail size, can you think of a board that might be better for me than either the Formula Experience or Ultrasonic? I really only want thing, and that is to plane in light wind. I have other boards for the "fun stuff" like jibing and going fast. So my question is, for pure planing is there anything better for me?

Remi

29th April 2011 05:17 AM

Hi Unregistered

If you are looking for something who plane as much earlier as possible, their is nothing better than the UltrSonic 147 in our range. Formula use to be this in the past but not rely fun and fast with a lot of power demend. The US 147 will just glide and will be faster than Formula on reach under 10 knots.
See the videos on my Facebook and Starboard web site.

You can even increase the planning and light wind performances with a bigger sails like Turbo 9.2, Overdive 9.7 ; 11 and even the Reflex II 12 m work on it but for heavy guy for the last one.